Automated scheduling assistant for a workforce management system

ABSTRACT

A system is provided for a workforce management system adapted to perform automated scheduling operations based on one or more scheduling rules. The system includes a processor and a computer readable medium operably coupled thereto, to perform the scheduling operations which include receiving, from an administrative user, parameters for a plurality of queries for a gamified survey, determining the gamified survey for the plurality of queries, wherein each of the plurality of queries further comprises an agreement level with an answer to the query, distributing the gamified survey to a first user through the workforce management system, detecting a first survey response by the first user to the gamified survey, and generating, without input from the administrative user, a first scheduling rule associated with the first user based on the first survey response.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to scheduling in a workforcemanagement system, and more specifically to a system and method for rulegeneration that automates scheduling in a workforce management systembased on a gamified survey system.

BACKGROUND

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not beassumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in thebackground section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the backgroundsection or associated with the subject matter of the background sectionshould not be assumed to have been previously recognized (or beconventional or well-known) in the prior art. The subject matter in thebackground section merely represents different approaches, which in andof themselves may also be inventions.

A workforce management system may be utilized by a company,organization, or other entity to provide various workforce managementsolutions to supervisors, managers, and other administrators at theorganization. Workforce management may be utilized to provide schedulingassistance to a workforce of employees. However, this schedulingassistance relies on managers and supervisors to directly enterscheduling information, times, and other data. Thus, employees may notreceive a “best” or most preferred schedule based on the users interestsand preferences. The managers may actively solicit feedback; however,this feedback can take the form of multiple different responses wheremanagers are unable to understand the preferences from the employees.Additionally, this introduces bias and is time consuming and costly toadminister and understand the results. Employees may fail to respond,which further introduces error in scheduling. Once the feedback isreceived, making changes to schedules is a manual process, which furthercauses error when managers attempt to revise schedules or create newschedules. Thus, electronic workforce management scheduling assistantsfail to properly provide scheduling parameters that are helpful andsuccessful in providing solutions to employee scheduling issues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is best understood from the following detaileddescription when read with the accompanying figures. It is emphasizedthat, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, variousfeatures are not drawn to scale. In fact, the dimensions of the variousfeatures may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity ofdiscussion. In the figures, elements having the same designations havethe same or similar functions.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networked environment suitable forimplementing the processes described herein according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of data flow in an exemplary systemenvironment according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram of a method for performing automatedscheduling assistance based on gamified surveys taken by agents or usersof a workforce management system according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram of a method for administering andprocessing gamified surveys for automated scheduling assistanceaccording to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of a gamified survey according to someembodiments.

FIG. 6 is a simplified diagram of a computing device according to someembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This description and the accompanying drawings that illustrate aspects,embodiments, implementations, or applications should not be taken aslimiting—the claims define the protected invention. Various mechanical,compositional, structural, electrical, and operational changes may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of this description andthe claims. In some instances, well-known circuits, structures, ortechniques have not been shown or described in detail as these are knownto one of ordinary skill in the art.

In this description, specific details are set forth describing someembodiments consistent with the present disclosure. Numerous specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one of ordinary skillin the art that some embodiments may be practiced without some or all ofthese specific details. The specific embodiments disclosed herein aremeant to be illustrative but not limiting. One of ordinary skill in theart may realize other elements that, although not specifically describedhere, are within the scope and the spirit of this disclosure. Inaddition, to avoid unnecessary repetition, one or more features shownand described in association with one embodiment may be incorporatedinto other embodiments unless specifically described otherwise or if theone or more features would make an embodiment non-functional.

Overview

For a workforce management system, methods, data structures, and systemsare provided for a gamified survey and rule generation engine thatautomates scheduling of agents based on survey responses. A databasesystem stores tables and data structures of survey queries, receivedresponses to the surveys, and rules generated based on the responses.The surveys may be generated, for example, by users or administrators(e.g., managers and supervisors of an organization) of client systems ordevices based on input, such as text, menu selections, and the like,when the administrators request survey generation and proliferation. Thesurveys may further be generated and/or updated based on responses tothe surveys.

The survey engine may process the survey question and/or parametertesting input and generate a gamified survey. The gamified survey maypresent a user, such as an employee or agent of the organization, with achoice between two or more options that require the user to make aselection for a scheduling parameter or preference. For example, thesurvey may inquire as to whether the user would prefer one or anotherday off, a number of hours or days to work consecutively, or otherpotential user preference is scheduling. Moreover, the survey may alsorequest a user rating of the choice, such as how much the user agreeswith the choice or preference. Such a rating may correspond to a Likertscale that requests the user to designate how much they agree with thestatement.

The survey is then output through an interface of the workforcemanagement system to the users of the organization that requirescheduling by the manager or other administrator. The users may provideresponses through interface feedback and user input. Using the responseto the survey, rules may be generated for each individual user and theusers in general. For example, the rules may designate when and how longa user works, as well as breaks the user has. These rules may also beset for a group of users, such as users in a sales department or thelike. The rules may therefore apply to one or more users and be used togenerate a schedule for the users. The rules may further be used toupdate and revise the previous surveys to have new questions based onthe user preferences, which may be performed without requiring theadministrator to change the queries and/or parameters for surveygeneration.

The embodiments described herein provide methods, computer programproducts, and computer database systems for gamified survey generationand administrator for automated scheduling assistance. A workforcemanagement system provides a gamified survey and rule generation enginefor administrators of an organization. For example, the online systemmay provide a portal that is accessible by the administrators to enterinput used to generate surveys and view the results of schedulingassistance based on responses to the surveys. As part of providing theservices to users, the online system stores these surveys and providesrule output and scheduling.

According to some embodiments, in a workforce management systemaccessible by a plurality of separate and distinct organizations, agamified survey and rule generation model is provided for identifying,predicting, and generating scheduling rules, thereby enhancing theexperience of users during scheduling and reducing user input and dataprocessing required for scheduling assistance.

Example Environment

The system and methods of the present disclosure can include,incorporate, or operate in conjunction with or in the environment of anautomation engine, database, and portal, which may include cloud-basedcomputing architecture. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networkedenvironment 100 suitable for implementing the processes described hereinaccording to an embodiment. As shown, environment 100 may comprise orimplement a plurality of devices, servers, and/or software componentsthat operate to perform various methodologies in accordance with thedescribed embodiments. Exemplary devices and servers may include device,stand-alone, and enterprise-class servers, operating an OS such as aMICROSOFT® OS, a UNIX® OS, a LINUX® OS, or another suitable deviceand/or server-based OS. It can be appreciated that the devices and/orservers illustrated in FIG. 1 may be deployed in other ways and that theoperations performed, and/or the services provided, by such devicesand/or servers may be combined or separated for a given embodiment andmay be performed by a greater number or fewer number of devices and/orservers. For example, cloud-based architectures have been developed toimprove collaboration, integration, and community-based cooperationbetween users without sacrificing data security. One or more devicesand/or servers may be operated and/or maintained by the same ordifferent entities.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example environment 100according to some embodiments. Environment 100 may include supervisorclient 110, workforce management server 120, storage 130, and agentclient 140 for automating scheduling based on gamified surveyadministration and responses. In other embodiments, environment 100 maynot have all of the components listed and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above. In some embodiments,the environment 100 is an environment in which automated schedulingassistance is provided based on gamified surveys. A supervisor client110 may be any machine or system that is used by a user to providepreferences, parameters, and/or queries for survey generation. Forexample, supervisor client 110 can be a handheld computing device, amobile phone, a laptop computer, a notepad computer, a work station,and/or a network of computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 1 (and inmore detail in FIG. 2) supervisor client 110 might interact via anetwork with workforce management server 120, which provides the surveyto agent client 140 and processes received feedback or responses to thesurvey for rule generation when automating scheduling.

Supervisor client 110 may be utilized in order to provide input togenerate questions for surveys. A question for a survey may correspondto any parameter or query for a gamified survey that is tested foremployees or agents at an organization, such as start times, specificday of the week off, level of desire for consecutive days off,desirability to have one day of a weekend off, break times/duration,number of working hours, etc. Other workforce management topics may alsobe tested, such as working conditions and locations, technologyrequirements, client interactions, and the like. The input may directlycorrespond to a query or may correspond to parameters used by workforcemanagement server 120 to generate a query (e.g., selection of days thatmay be queried for a preference of days off). A supervisor 102 may alsomake selections of gamification parameters so that the questions andqueries may be presented to an agent 104 in a gamified manner thatincreases user responses and engagement with the survey. However, inother embodiments, workforce management server 120 may instead performthe gamification of the survey based on stored gamification parametersand/or user response rates and interactions with gamified surveys.Additionally, supervisor client 110 may further provide supervisor 102the results of the surveys with workforce management server 120,including schedules based on gamified survey responses for agent 104.Agent 104 is referred to herein as an “agent” or an “employee” of anorganization but may more broadly correspond to any type of member of aworkforce.

Agent client 140 may be utilized in order to respond to gamified surveysprovided to agent 104 based on schedule queries and parameters providedby supervisor 102 through supervisor client 110. For example, agentclient 140 may access one or more portals or applications provided byworkforce management server 120, which output surveys to agent 104. Insome embodiments, the survey may be transmitted to agent 104 through anelectronic communication, such as an email, text message, instantmessage, or the like. Agent 104 may then respond to gamified surveyqueries and questions through input to agent client 140. The input maycorrespond to selections between two or more options associated with ascheduling parameter. Thus, the first dimension of a survey query may bea tradeoff decision between multiple options. The second dimension ofthe query may be a level of agreement with the parameter (e.g., how muchdoes the employee agree with the importance of the tradeoff decision).This may utilize a rating or Likert scale. Responses to the survey areprovided by a plurality of agents including agent 104 and a summary maybe maintained and updated by workforce management server 120.

The users of supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140 may differ intheir respective capacities, and the capacity of a particular supervisorclient 110 and/or agent client 140 might be entirely determined byapplications, permissions, and profiles for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using agent client 140 to respond tosurveys, that user system has the capacities allotted to thatsalesperson and those computing events may be associated with asalesperson. However, where an administrator or manager is usingsupervisor client 110 to provide survey queries and view schedulingresults, that supervisor client 110 has the capacities allotted to thatadministrator and may perform actions, survey generation, and responsereview associated with that administrator. Thus, different users willhave different capabilities and perform different desktop events withregard to automation of scheduling rules based on gamified surveys, andcorresponding profiles may be provided to workforce management server120 when generating gamified surveys and schedules based on surveyresponses. Both supervisor client 110 and agent client 140 may execute aweb-based client that accesses a web-based application for workforcemanagement server 120, or may utilize a rich client, such as a dedicatedresident application, to access workforce management server 120.

Supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140 also typically utilize oneor more user interface devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, trackball,touch pad, touch screen, pen or the like, for interacting with agraphical user interface (GUI) provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor, lightemitting diode (LED) monitor, organic light emitting diode (OLED)monitor, etc.) in conjunction with pages, forms, applications, and otherinformation provided by the workforce management server 120 or othersystems or servers through the web-based or rich client. For example,the user interface device can be used to access data and applicationshosted by workforce management server 120, and to perform searches onstored data, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUIpages that may be presented to a user. As discussed above, embodimentsare suitable for use with the Internet, which refers to a specificglobal internetwork of networks. However, it should be understood thatother networks can be used instead of the Internet, such as an intranet,an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP basednetwork, any LAN or WAN or the like.

Supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140 might communicate withworkforce management server 120 using TCP/IP and, at a higher networklevel, use other common Internet protocols to communicate, such ashypertext transfer protocol (HTTP or HTTPS for secure versions of HTTP),file transfer protocol (FTP), wireless application protocol (WAP), etc.In an example where HTTP/HTTPS is used, client 110 might include anHTTP/HTTPS client commonly referred to as a “browser” for sending andreceiving HTTP//HTTPS messages to and from an HTTP//HTTPS server, suchas workforce management server 120. Such an HTTP/HTTPS server might beimplemented as the sole network interface between supervisor client 110and/or agent client 140 with workforce management server 120, but othertechniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations,the interface between supervisor client 110/agent client 140 andworkforce management server 120 includes load sharing functionality.

Supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140 may utilize a network tocommunicate with workforce management server 120 and/or each other,which is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, the network can be any one orany combination of a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a transfer control protocol and Internet protocol (TCP/IP)network, such as the global inter network of networks often referred toas the Internet. However, it should be understood that the networks thatthe present embodiments might use are not so limited, although TCP/IP isa frequently implemented protocol.

According to one embodiment, workforce management server 120 isconfigured to provide webpages, forms, applications, data, and mediacontent to supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140 and/or toreceive data from supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140,including questions and parameters for survey generation and responsesto surveys. As such, workforce management server 120 provides securitymechanisms to keep data secure. Additionally, the term “server” is meantto include a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., object-oriented data base management system (OODBMS) orrelational database management system (RDBMS)). It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

In some embodiments, workforce management server 120, shown in FIG. 1,executes web nodes 122, service nodes 124, gamified survey application126, and schedule rules generator 128. For example, in one embodiment,workforce management server 120 includes application servers configuredto implement and execute software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages, and other information associatedwith web nodes 122, service nodes 124, gamified survey application 126,and schedule rules generator 128, and to store to, and retrieve from, adatabase system related data, objects, and web page content associatedwith web nodes 122, service nodes 124, gamified survey application 126,and schedule rules generator 128. For example, workforce managementserver 120 may implement various functions of web nodes 122, servicenodes 124, gamified survey application 126, and schedule rules generator128, and the processing space for executing system processes, such asrunning applications as part of web nodes 122, service nodes 124,gamified survey application 126, and schedule rules generator 128.

Web nodes 122 may correspond to the web applications and API servicesthat provide an interface (web browser, desktop application, etc.) forsupervisor 102 and/or agent 104 to interact with workforce managementserver 120. Service nodes 124 may provide business services of workforcemanagement server 120 that are provided through web nodes 122 and areaccessible through supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140.Gamified survey application 126 corresponds to the application andprocesses that allow for the creation and management of gamified surveysbased on questions, options, and/or rating scales, and further allowsfor agent 104 and other agents or employees to take the survey. In someembodiments, gamified survey application 126 further corresponds to theapplication that maintains and updates a summary or statistic results ofthe employee responses as the agents and employees complete the survey,provides the summary, and further concludes the survey at the end of thesurvey period to provide full survey results. Schedule rules generator128 corresponds to a component and processes that takes the results fromgamified survey application 126, analyzes the results, builds tentativeschedules, and either revises schedules and/or surveys based on feedbackto the schedules or implements the schedules for the agents andemployees of an organization. Additional processes that may execute onworkforce management server 120 include database indexing processesassociated with survey questions and scheduling parameters received fromsupervisor client 110 and survey responses received from agent client140.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1 include elements that areexplained briefly here. For example, each of supervisor client 110and/or agent client 140 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, notepad computer, PDA, cell phone, or any wirelessaccess protocol (WAP) enabled device or any other computing devicecapable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or othernetwork connection. Each of supervisor client 110 and/or agent client140 typically runs an HTTP/HTTPS client, e.g., a browsing program, suchas Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, Netscape's Navigator browser,Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browser in the case of a cell phone,notepad computer, PDA or other wireless device, or the like. Accordingto one embodiment, each of supervisor client 110 and/or agent client 140and all of its components are configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, workforcemanagement server 120 and all of their components might be operatorconfigurable using application(s) including computer code to run using acentral processing unit, which may include an Intel Pentium® processoror the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computer program productembodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium (media) havinginstructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program a computerto perform any of the processes of the embodiments described hereinutilizing one or more computing devices.

Computer code for operating and configuring workforce management server120 to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and otherdata and media content as described herein are preferably downloaded andstored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof,may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory mediumor device corresponding by storage 130, such as a read only memory (ROM)or random-access memory (RAM), or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory integrated circuits(ICs)), or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. For example, storage 130 may store system database 132associated with providing and administering workforce management server120, web nodes 122, and/or service nodes 124. Additional data mayfurther be stored by storage 130, including survey database 134 used bygamified survey application 126 and/or schedule rules generator 128 foradministration of gamified surveys and scheduling based on rulesgenerated from the surveys. Additionally, the entire program code, orportions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a softwaresource over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or fromanother server, as is well known, or transmitted over any otherconventional network connection as is well known (e.g., extranet,virtual private network (VPN), LAN, etc.) using any communication mediumand protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are wellknown. It will also be appreciated that computer code for implementingembodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented in anyprogramming language that can be executed on a client system and/orserver or server system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any othermarkup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scriptinglanguage, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as arewell known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun MicroSystems,Inc.).

Scheduling Assistance Model

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of data flow in an exemplary systemenvironment according to some embodiments. Environment 200 of FIG. 2includes supervisor 102, agent 104, supervisor client 110, workforcemanagement server 120, gamified survey application 126, schedule rulesgenerator 128, and agent client 140 discussed in reference toenvironment 100 of FIG. 1. In this regard, environment 200 displays thetransfer of data over a network when generating gamified surveys frominput by a supervisor 102 and distributing the gamified surveys to agent104 for survey response.

In environment 200, supervisor 102 interacts with supervisor client 110to create a survey, at step 1, with gamified survey application 126. Thesurvey may be created by providing input, such as text input, menuselections of queries and/or survey parameters, or other data that maybe provided to gamified survey application 126 to generate a surveyhaving one or more queries associated with a schedule for a user. Forexample, these parameters or questions to generate a survey maycorrespond to discernable factors which set the conditions around agiven schedule. Exemplary parameters and/or questions may be directed todays off, consecutive days off, desirability to have particular daysoff, break times and/or durations, a number of working hours, and thelike. The survey may also be generated by supervisor 102 interactingwith gamified survey application 126 to set parameters or settings forthe gamification of the survey, such as a game type for presentation ofthe survey. For example, the survey may correspond to flash cards orother interface output game that may be presented so that users mayselect between two or more options. These gamified survey questions mayfurther include a level of agreement to selection of one of the options,which may be presented as a Likert or rating scale. Selection of thesurvey parameters, questions, rating system, and/or gamificationsettings may be performed through one or more interface optionspresented on supervisor device 110 after accessing gamified surveyapplication 126. For example, the interface may provide text entryelements, menu elements, and other interface elements for selection ofsurvey parameters. An exemplary gamified survey is shown in more detailin FIG. 5.

At step 2, supervisor 102 then designates and chooses the agents to takethe survey with workforce management server 120. For example, at leastagent 104 may be selected through an interface provided by workforcemanagement server 120. The interface may provide a listing user names,identifiers, and/or other data that may allow for selection of agent 104and other agents, or the contact identifier may be entered by supervisor102. The selected agents may correspond to employees or users within anorganization that are requested to respond to the survey for schedulingassistance. For example, supervisor 102 may be a manager of agent 104and the other agents, or may be another management member that is taskedwith scheduling agent 104 and the other agents. Based on selection ofagent 104 (as well as other agents), at step 3, notification of thesurvey is sent to the agents, such as to agent client 140. Thenotification may be sent through an electronic communication, such as anemail, text message, instant message, or other type of communication.The communication may be sent having the gamified survey for response bythe agents. In other embodiments, however, the communication may alertthe agents that the survey is accessible through gamified surveyapplication 126 and available on a portal or other accessible interface.Once accessed, the survey may be presented to agent 104 on agent client140 so that the survey can be completed. Agent 104 completes the survey,at step 4, which includes making selections from the two or moretradeoff options, questions, and/or other query in the gamified mannerfor the survey. Agent 104 may further provide additional feedback orresponses in the form of an agreement rating, Likert scale, or otheragreement parameter based on agent 104's agreement with the question oroption.

The response is therefore provided to gamified survey application 126for processing. Gamified survey application 126 then processes theresponses from agent 104 and the other agents, and provides the results(e.g., individual user and/or group tabulated data from responding tothe survey) to schedule rules generation 128. The data may thereforecorrespond to the survey responses from the agents or may correspond tosummarized data from the agent's responses (e.g., tables, numbers, orother data of the survey responses computed through a tabulated orscored process). Schedule rules generator 128 may then process the datato determine one or more rules for scheduling assistance. For example, arule may correspond to one or more agents schedule preferences togenerate a schedule of their work time. A rule may determine which daysa user prefers to work or would like off, as well as a number of days orhours to work, how many consecutive days or hours to work, break times,start or end work times, and the like. The rules may be determined basedon the selection between choices by agent 104 and the other agents andmay also be ranked or given priority based on the agents' rating oftheir selections. For example, the agent may more highly prefer to havecertain days off over a particular start time, which may be used togenerate a specific rule for that agent to schedule those days off butallow for variable start times including the non-preferred start time ofthe agent in order to accommodate for the days off preferred by theagent.

Once the rules are determined, schedules and recommendations aregenerated based on the rules by schedule rules generator 128, at step 6,and the schedule recommendations are output to supervisor 102 throughsupervisor client 110. Rules and schedules may be determined afterclosing of the survey, such as a time limit for responding to thesurvey. The schedules and recommendations may be generated in anautomated manner without requiring user input from supervisor 102. Thus,supervisor 102 is not required to make active scheduling decisions andinstead workforce management server 120 may make the recommendationsbased on responses collected from agents including agent 104. Byautomating the process, supervisor 102 is not required to activelyprovide input for processing and entry into schedules for agents,thereby saving processing time and input requirements. Supervisor 102may then respond to the schedule recommendations and changes, at step 7,and accept those schedule changes where applicable. However, ifsupervisor 102 does not approve the schedule, supervisor 102 may requestchanges to be made and/or the survey responses re-processed to determineadditional or different rules. In some embodiments, additional agentsare requested to participate in a survey and further responses areprocessed so that rules may be determined for a larger set of agents andwithin a broader organization department. The processes and methodsassociated with the data flow in environment 200 are described in moredetail with regard to FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram of a method for performing automatedscheduling assistance based on gamified surveys taken by agents or usersof a workforce management system according to some embodiments. Notethat one or more steps, processes, and methods described herein offlowchart 300 may be omitted, performed in a different sequence, orcombined as desired or appropriate. Flowchart 300 of FIG. 3 includessupervisor 102, agent 104, and workforce management server 120 discussedin reference to environments 100 and 200 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2,respectively.

At step 302 of flowchart 300, supervisor 102 begins the process byentering survey questions, which may include survey parameters orqueries associated with scheduling work time and other workforcescheduling preferences for employees at an organization. In otherembodiments, other types of survey questions may be entered that areassociated with preferences or parameters of a workforce of a company,such as vacation preferences, work or assignment requirements, benefitsand compensation, client workload and/or assignment, work locationpreferences, or other query that may assist with provided scheduling,assignments, and/or workforce management to the agents, employees, andmanagement of the organization. The survey questions may be enteredbased on text questions proposed to the user, such as through textinput. The survey questions may also be generated by selecting differentmenu options that automate query generation based on selected parametersfor scheduling. The questions may also be entered with choices forresponding to the questions, such as tradeoff options between two ormore selections. In some embodiments, the tradeoff option may corresponddirectly to the query where the user is required to select between twoor more options and their preference. Additionally, supervisor 102 maygenerate or indicate a rating or Likert scale used for a seconddimension to each survey question or tradeoff that indicates a degreethat the user agrees with their selection or answer. Once the survey hasbeen generated, supervisor 102 indicates one or more agents, such as agroup of agents (e.g., a workforce, department, etc.), such as agent 104to respond to the survey, at step 304.

Workforce management server 120 then receives the input of thequestions, parameters, and/or options for the survey questions, as wellas the group of agents for the survey, and generates a gamified surveyautomatically based on gamification principles and preferences, at step306. In this regard, workforce management server 120 may executegamified survey application 126 to generate the survey. Gamified surveyapplication 126 may automate the processes to generate, transmit, andprocess surveys and responses to surveys such that user input is notrequired, and real-world surveys that need to be manually summarized andprocessed are not used. Therefore, the digital surveys and automatedprocesses of workforce management server 120 may remove the difficultiesin the manual processes of survey administration and workforcemanagement so that outside survey apparatuses and systems are notrequired. The gamified survey may include two or more dimensionalities,such as a first dimension to select between two or more options oranswers to a question. The second dimensionality may correspond to alevel of agreement with selection of an answer or option by the agent,such as a rating or Likert scale that indicates an agent's preference inthe selection or their agreeability with the selection (e.g., stronglyagree, neutral, somewhat disagree, and the like). Additionally, based onthe questions and/or parameters for scheduling or other workforcemanagement, workforce management server 120 may require a differentnumber of queries, questions, or tradeoff options. For example, thenumber of questions, parameters, and/or tradeoff options may require anX²-type number of queries, where based on the input parameters of X(e.g., 2, 3, 4, 6 parameters) would result in X² questions or options(e.g., 3, 9, 16, or 36 questions, respectively). In response togenerating the gamified survey, at step 308, notifications are sent toagents by workforce management server 120, such as an electroniccommunication having the gamified survey and/or a link or process toaccess the gamified survey through one or more interfaces provided byworkforce management server 120.

Agent 104 then completes the survey and/or game, at step 310. Thegamified survey may be presented in a game manner that encourages userengagement and completion by presenting interface elements, data, andgames that a user may respond to in a digital manner. Completion of thesurvey may be done before ending of a period of time for agents tocomplete the survey. Completion of the survey may generate surveyresponses or results from agent 104, that may then be sent back toworkforce management server 120 for processing. For example, schedulerules generator 128 of workforce management server 120 may receive thesurvey results from agent 104 and analyze the survey results, at step312. Analysis of the survey results may correspond to compiling thesurvey results into a statistical analysis, tally, or other summary ofagent 104's responses, as well as the other agent responses. At the endof a survey time, the final total and/or summary of all of the agents'responses, as well as the summary of particular agent responses, may beanalyzed to determine preferences and/or scheduling rules (or otherworkforce management task) for all agents surveyed as well as specificagents in that survey group.

At step 314, schedule rules and other recommendations are created basedon the survey results, responses, and summaries. In order to generateschedule rules for scheduling one or more agents, the summaries for eachagent and for the group of agents may be processed to determine agentpreferences for their schedules. For example, agents may select oneoption between two or more options that they prefer, and a degree ofpreference for the selection. A scoring algorithm or other logic maydetermine agents' overall preferences and most highly preferredpreference as well as lower preferred preferences. The algorithm mayscore each agent's preferences and the group of agents' preferencesbased on the selection of the option and the amount of agreement orpreference for that selection. For example, a weigh (e.g., 1-5 or 1-10,a percentage, etc.) may be assigned to a selection of an option based onthe agent's rating or Likert response. This algorithm may be used todetermine a most highly preferred schedule or rules for scheduling, suchas preferences for certain days off, number of consecutive working days,hours is a working day, break lengths or times, or other schedulingissue. The optimization algorithm may therefore optimize an agent'spreferred schedule at least based on their responses to the survey. Infurther embodiments, the schedule may also be optimized based on otheragents' responses and the organization's requirements for the workforce,such as minimum working agents or employees at a time, number of hoursrequired to work during a time period (e.g., day, week, month, and/oryear), sick or vacation time limits, employee requirements for a clientor associated business (e.g., certain agents required to be on staff),state or country legal requirements, and the like.

The optimization algorithm may therefore generate a plurality of rulesthat maximize employee and agent preferences in their work scheduling.Due to the numerous input data and functions, millions if not billionsof different rules may be calculated by the algorithmic process for aparticular workforce, thereby making the automated rule generationfunction of schedule rules generator 128 faster and more efficient thanother survey administration processes. Thus, the automated functionalityof schedule rules generator 128 may include coded logic to automaticallygenerate and process these scheduling rules. In other embodiments, theworkforce management may be associated with other workforce issues thatmay be managed, such as vacation, compensation, client work orinteractions, locations of work, and other types of work relatedfunctions. In such embodiments, different rules may be determined forworkforce management by an optimization algorithm to determine a user'spreferred work function. Using the generated rules and the agents oremployees, recommendations for schedules are determined, at step 316.This may correspond to a daily, weekly, monthly, or other time period ofrequired work days, hours, etc. The schedule may also designate timeoff, break or meal times, and the like. At step 318, the recommendationsfor the schedule are output to supervisor 102. Supervisor 102 may viewthe recommendations through one or more portals and interfaces ofworkforce management server 120. Supervisor 102 may approve or rejectthe recommendations and rules. If rejected, new rules may be determinedby adjusting weights of particular values, revising the gamified surveyautomatically to retest particular preferences of agents, and revisingthe rule values for the scoring algorithm based on feedback fromsupervisor 102. If accepted (and/or after revising scheduling based onrejected rules and recommendations), flowchart 300 proceeds to step 320,where workforce management server 120 assigns schedules to agents basedon the recommendations and rules agreed upon by supervisor 102.

FIG. 4 is a simplified diagram of a method for administering andprocessing gamified surveys for automated scheduling assistanceaccording to some embodiments. In some embodiments, gamified surveyadministration and schedule rule generation described in method 400 ofFIG. 4 can be implemented and performed using workforce managementsystem 120, and in particular through gamified survey application 126and schedule rules generator 128. During the discussion of method 400,reference may be made to FIG. 5, where FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram ofa gamified survey according to some embodiments.

One or more of the processes 402-432 of method 400 may be implemented,at least in part, in the form of executable code stored onnon-transitory, tangible, machine-readable media that when run by one ormore processors may cause the one or more processors to perform one ormore of the processes 402-432. In some embodiments, method 400 can beperformed by one or more computing devices in environment 100 of FIG. 1.

The model of method 400, such as automating gamified survey and schedulerule generation, uses deep learning algorithms and approaches to performautomated scheduling in a workforce management system. When utilizingdeep learning, data balancing is performed to obtain the highestpossible accuracy based on the recommendations or responses to thesystem. Alternative weighting to responses may be tested, which allowsminority responses to be considered and not ignored. The deep learningmodel may be closed-loop such that the particular weights used to trainthe system may be continually adjusted and the accuracy of suchrecommendations using the deep learning model may be improved. In someembodiments, this includes taking input data from a manager orsupervision and generating gamified surveys for agents or employees ofan organization automatically without requiring generation andadministration of the surveys directly. In some embodiments, thisfurther includes processing responses and additional results from agentcompletion of the surveys, generating scheduling rules and parametersfor a workforce, and providing the rules and recommendations forscheduling to the supervisor and/or the agents.

To accomplish this, and with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, the method 400starts with a process 402, where a supervisor creates a survey withinthe system. An exemplary survey is shown in environment 500 of FIG. 5.For example, two options may be provided to a user in the form of adigital flashcard game, where a first card 510 shows one option and asecond card 520 shows a second option in response to a question 530.Both the options for first card 510, second card 520, and question 530may be generated in response to parameters, text input, and other dataprovided by a supervisor, manager, or other administrator at anorganization. In some embodiments, the supervisor may directly select orinput question 530 and the options for first card 510 and second card520. However, in other embodiments, parameters for scheduling (e.g.,weekend work preferences) may be selected, which may cause automaticgeneration of question 530 and the corresponding options for first card510 and second card 520. As previously discussed, the parameters for thequestions may cause the square of the number of parameters in resultingquestions, such as X parameters generate X² questions (Q) or X²=Q. Thus,the questions may test the different options for each schedulingparameter as a tradeoff between the different options and a comparisonbetween each parameter.

Environment 500 of FIG. 5 further displays a progress bar 540 that showsa level of completeness of the survey and a remaining time, number ofquestions, or length of the gamified survey. In some embodiments,progress bar 540 may include a save feature to leave the gamified surveyso the agent may return at a later time to complete the survey.Environment 500 also include a rating scale 550, shown as a Likert scaleindicating a user or agents agreeability with selection of either firstcard 510 or second card 520 in response to question 530. For example,question 530 requests that a user indicate which day off they prefer,Saturday for first card 510 or Sunday for second card 520. Selection ofone of these options fulfills the first dimensionality response toquestion 530. But further to indicate a level of importance orpreference, the user may further select between the interface elementsfor rating scale 550. In environment 500, selection of “Mostly Agree”from rating scale 550 indicates that the user has a high preferencebetween the selection of first card 510 or second card 520. Oncemultiple questions have been generated for the survey, the gamifiedversion of the survey may be saved at process 404, where method 400proceeds to process 408 and the survey definition is saved in thesystem, such as workforce management system 120. However, if the surveyis discarded at process 404, method 400 proceeds to process 406 wherethe survey is discarded, and the administrator may leave the system orproceed back to the beginning of method 400.

Once the survey definition is saved in the system at process 408, thesupervisor may choose employees to complete the survey, at process 410.For example, the supervisor may designate names, email addresses,identifiers, phone numbers, etc., which may be used to electroniccommunications with the particular agents and employees. At process 412,a determination is made of whether to send a notification to employees.If no notifications are requested to be sent, method 400 reverts toprocess 408 where the survey definition exists and is saved in theworkforce management system. However, if notifications are requested tobe sent to the selected agents and/or employees, at process 414, thesystem sends the notifications of the survey to each selected employeeand/or to the group of employees (e.g., a group email or message).

Employees and agents may then choose to take the survey at process 416.If an employee does not open and complete or leaves an incompletesurvey, at process 418 the survey results may be discarded or held asincomplete for later use or completion. However, if the employees oragents begin to complete, the workforce management system starts savingall of the responses at process 420. For example, in reference toenvironment 500 of FIG. 5, the employee or agent may select betweenfirst card 510 and second card 520 indicating their preference, and thenfurther select one of the agreement levels or preferences of ratingscale 550. The employee or agent may then proceed iteratively throughall of the questions within the gamified survey while playing the gameor otherwise engaging in the survey. Input by the employees or agentsmay correspond to interface element selections through an input device,as well as text, voice, and/or touch inputs that may be used to selector respond to questions. Once completed, the survey responses aresubmitted for processing after completion, at process 420.

At process 424, the workforce management system analyzes the results andgenerates schedule recommendations per agent or employee. The resultsmay be analyzed to generate specific rules for single agents, as well asgroups of agents, such as a workforce, team, or department. Rules may beused to determine preferences for scheduling or other workplacemanagement for an agent or a group of agents. For example, a rule may be“Agent A prefers to work Saturday but not Sunday” or may be morecomplicated to further include “ . . . And does not have a preferencebetween starting work at 8 AM or 9 AM.” Rules may be more or lesscomplicated as required by the system so that the rules may be used togenerate specific schedules for the employees and/or agents of theorganization. At process 426, the recommendations and/or rules areprovided to the supervisor and the supervisors determines whether toapprove or decline. If declined, then method 400 proceeds to process 428where no scheduling changes occur. However, if approved (or if changedbased on a request by the supervisor), then at process 430, theworkforce management system applies the schedules, recommendations,and/or rules to the schedules based on the survey results. Further,agents and employees are notified of the schedule changes, at process432. This may further include soliciting further feedback and surveyresponses.

As discussed above and further emphasized here, FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5are merely examples of workforce management server 120 and correspondingmethods for training and use of gamified survey application 126 andschedule rules generator 128, which examples should not be used tounduly limit the scope of the claims. One of ordinary skill in the artwould recognize many variations, alternatives, and modifications.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a computer system suitable for implementingone or more components in FIGS. 1 and 2, according to an embodiment. Invarious embodiments, the communication device may comprise a personalcomputing device (e.g., smart phone, a computing tablet, a personalcomputer, laptop, a wearable computing device such as glasses or awatch, Bluetooth device, key FOB, badge, etc.) capable of communicatingwith the network. The service provider may utilize a network computingdevice (e.g., a network server) capable of communicating with thenetwork. It should be appreciated that each of the devices utilized byusers and service providers may be implemented as computer system 600 ina manner as follows.

Computer system 600 includes a bus 602 or other communication mechanismfor communicating information data, signals, and information betweenvarious components of computer system 600. Components include aninput/output (I/O) component 604 that processes a user action, such asselecting keys from a keypad/keyboard, selecting one or more buttons,image, or links, and/or moving one or more images, etc., and sends acorresponding signal to bus 602. I/O component 604 may also include anoutput component, such as a display 611 and a cursor control 613 (suchas a keyboard, keypad, mouse, etc.). An optional audio input/outputcomponent 605 may also be included to allow a user to use voice forinputting information by converting audio signals. Audio I/O component605 may allow the user to hear audio. A transceiver or network interface606 transmits and receives signals between computer system 600 and otherdevices, such as another communication device, service device, or aservice provider server via network 150. In one embodiment, thetransmission is wireless, although other transmission mediums andmethods may also be suitable. One or more processors 612, which can be amicro-controller, digital signal processor (DSP), or other processingcomponent, processes these various signals, such as for display oncomputer system 600 or transmission to other devices via a communicationlink 618. Processor(s) 612 may also control transmission of information,such as cookies or IP addresses, to other devices.

Components of computer system 600 also include a system memory component614 (e.g., RAM), a static storage component 616 (e.g., ROM), and/or adisk drive 617. Computer system 600 performs specific operations byprocessor(s) 612 and other components by executing one or more sequencesof instructions contained in system memory component 614. Logic may beencoded in a computer readable medium, which may refer to any mediumthat participates in providing instructions to processor(s) 612 forexecution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limitedto, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Invarious embodiments, non-volatile media includes optical or magneticdisks, volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as system memorycomponent 614, and transmission media includes coaxial cables, copperwire, and fiber optics, including wires that comprise bus 602. In oneembodiment, the logic is encoded in non-transitory computer readablemedium. In one example, transmission media may take the form of acousticor light waves, such as those generated during radio wave, optical, andinfrared data communications.

Some common forms of computer readable media includes, for example,floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magneticmedium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, anyother physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EEPROM,FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other mediumfrom which a computer is adapted to read.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, execution ofinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure may beperformed by computer system 600. In various other embodiments of thepresent disclosure, a plurality of computer systems 600 coupled bycommunication link 618 to the network (e.g., such as a LAN, WLAN, PTSN,and/or various other wired or wireless networks, includingtelecommunications, mobile, and cellular phone networks) may performinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure in coordinationwith one another.

Where applicable, various embodiments provided by the present disclosuremay be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations of hardwareand software. Also, where applicable, the various hardware componentsand/or software components set forth herein may be combined intocomposite components comprising software, hardware, and/or both withoutdeparting from the spirit of the present disclosure. Where applicable,the various hardware components and/or software components set forthherein may be separated into sub-components comprising software,hardware, or both without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure. In addition, where applicable, it is contemplated thatsoftware components may be implemented as hardware components andvice-versa.

Software, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as programcode and/or data, may be stored on one or more computer readablemediums. It is also contemplated that software identified herein may beimplemented using one or more general purpose or specific purposecomputers and/or computer systems, networked and/or otherwise. Whereapplicable, the ordering of various steps described herein may bechanged, combined into composite steps, and/or separated into sub-stepsto provide features described herein.

Although illustrative embodiments have been shown and described, a widerange of modifications, changes and substitutions are contemplated inthe foregoing disclosure and in some instances, some features of theembodiments may be employed without a corresponding use of otherfeatures. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize manyvariations, alternatives, and modifications of the foregoing disclosure.Thus, the scope of the present application should be limited only by thefollowing claims, and it is appropriate that the claims be construedbroadly and in a manner consistent with the scope of the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for a workforce management systemadapted to perform automated scheduling operations based on one or morescheduling rules, the system comprising: a processor and a computerreadable medium operably coupled thereto, the computer readable mediumcomprising a plurality of instructions stored in association therewiththat are accessible to, and executable by, the processor, to perform thescheduling operations which comprise: receiving, from an administrativeuser, parameters for a plurality of queries for a gamified survey;determining the gamified survey for the plurality of queries, whereineach of the plurality of queries in the gamified survey comprises two ormore choices based on the parameters, and wherein the each of theplurality of queries further comprises an agreement level with an answerto the two or more choices; distributing the gamified survey to a firstuser through the workforce management system, wherein the gamifiedsurvey is distributed through a first user interface having selectableelements associated with the plurality of queries; detecting a firstsurvey response by the first user to the gamified survey; andgenerating, without input from the administrative user, a firstscheduling rule associated with the first user based on the first surveyresponse.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the scheduling operationsfurther comprise: adjusting the parameters for the gamified survey basedon at least the first survey response by the first user; and updatingthe two or more choices for each of the plurality of queries in at leastone additional gamified survey based on the adjusted parameters.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the parameters are associated with a workschedule provided by the administrative user, and wherein the parametersare associated with at least one of: a day off from work, a number ofconsecutive working days, a work start-time, a work end-time, or alength of a work day.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the gamifiedsurvey is presented as two or more flashcards corresponding to the twoor more choices for the each of the plurality of queries, and whereinthe scheduling operations further comprise: in response to receiving thefirst survey response, determining a number of reward points to providethe first user in a reward system of the workforce management system;and transmitting a notification of the number of reward points to thefirst user.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein prior to determining thefirst scheduling rule, the scheduling operations further comprise:determining that a survey length for the gamified survey has expired;and comparing, from the first survey response, first user selections forthe first user from the two or more choices and the agreement level forthe each of the plurality of queries, wherein the first scheduling ruleis determined based at least on comparing the first user selections. 6.The system of claim 5, wherein the scheduling operations furthercomprise: accessing a plurality of survey responses including the firstsurvey response, wherein the plurality of survey responses areassociated with a plurality of users including the first user; andcomparing, for each of the plurality of users from the plurality ofsurvey responses, a plurality of user's selections from the two or morechoices and the agreement level for the each of the plurality ofqueries, wherein determining the first scheduling rule comprisesdetermining a plurality of scheduling rules including the firstscheduling rule based on comparing the plurality of user's selections,wherein each of the plurality of scheduling rules are associated withone of the plurality of users.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein thescheduling operations further comprise: determining new parameters forthe plurality of queries based on the plurality of scheduling rules; andgenerating a new gamified survey based on the new parameters.
 8. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein the scheduling operations further comprise:determining one or more scheduling recommendations for the plurality ofusers based on the plurality of scheduling rules; and in response toreceiving an acceptance of the one or more scheduling recommendationsfrom the administrative user, performing electronic scheduling for theeach of the plurality of users in the workforce management system basedon the one or more scheduling recommendations, wherein the electronicscheduling updates a schedule for the each of the plurality of users inthe workforce management system.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein priorto receiving the acceptance, the scheduling operations further comprise:outputting a summary of the one or more scheduling recommendations tothe administrative user through a second user interface of the workforcemanagement system, wherein the summary displays the schedule for theeach of the plurality of users based on each of the schedulingrecommendations in the second user interface, wherein the acceptance isreceived through the workforce management system.
 10. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the two or more choices for the each of the pluralityof queries comprise a tradeoff option between two choices, and whereinthe agreement level comprises a multiple choice option using one of arating scale or a Likert scale.
 11. A method for execution by anautomated scheduling operation based on one or more scheduling rules ofa workforce management system, which method comprises: receiving, froman administrative user, parameters for a plurality of queries for agamified survey; determining the gamified survey for the plurality ofqueries, wherein each of the plurality of queries in the gamified surveycomprises two or more choices based on the parameters, and wherein theeach of the plurality of queries further comprises an agreement levelwith an answer to the two or more choices; distributing the gamifiedsurvey to a first user through the workforce management system, whereinthe gamified survey is distributed through a first user interface havingselectable elements associated with the plurality of queries; detectinga first survey response by the first user to the gamified survey; andgenerating, without input from the administrative user, a firstscheduling rule associated with the first user based on the first surveyresponse.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein prior to determining thefirst scheduling rule, the method further comprises: determining that asurvey length for the gamified survey has expired; and comparing, fromthe first survey response, first user selections for the first user fromthe two or more choices and the agreement level for the each of theplurality of queries, wherein the first scheduling rule is determinedbased at least on comparing the first user selections.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising: accessing a plurality of survey responsesincluding the first survey response, wherein the plurality of surveyresponses are associated with a plurality of users including the firstuser; and comparing, for each of the plurality of users from theplurality of survey responses, a plurality of user's selections from thetwo or more choices and the agreement level for the each of theplurality of queries, wherein determining the first scheduling rulecomprises determining a plurality of scheduling rules including thefirst scheduling rule based on comparing the plurality of user'sselections, wherein each of the plurality of scheduling rules areassociated with one of the plurality of users.
 14. The method of claim13, further comprising: determining new parameters for the plurality ofqueries based on the plurality of scheduling rules; and generating a newgamified survey based on the new parameters.
 15. The method of claim 13,further comprising: determining one or more scheduling recommendationsfor the plurality of users based on the plurality of scheduling rules;and in response to receiving an acceptance of the one or more schedulingrecommendations from the administrative user, performing electronicscheduling for the each of the plurality of users in the workforcemanagement system based on each of the scheduling recommendations,wherein the electronic scheduling updates a schedule for the each of theplurality of users in the workforce management system.
 16. The method ofclaim 15, wherein prior to receiving the acceptance, the method furthercomprises: outputting a summary of each of the schedulingrecommendations to the administrative user in through a second userinterface of the workforce management system, wherein the summarydisplays the schedule for the each of the plurality of users based oneach of the scheduling recommendations in the second user interface,wherein the acceptance is received through the workforce managementsystem.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the two or more choices forthe each of the plurality of queries comprises: a tradeoff optionbetween two choices based on the parameters, and wherein the tradeoffoption is based on one of two different days off, a number of days towork in a row, or a number of work hours.
 18. The method of claim 11,wherein the agreement level comprises multiple choice options associatedwith a satisfaction of the answer to the two or more choices using oneof a rating scale or a Likert scale.
 19. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-readableinstructions executable to cause an automated scheduling operation basedon one or more scheduling rules of a workforce management system toperform scheduling operations which comprises: receiving, from anadministrative user, parameters for a plurality of queries for agamified survey; determining the gamified survey for the plurality ofqueries, wherein each of the plurality of queries in the gamified surveycomprises two choices based on the parameters, and wherein each of theplurality of queries further comprises an agreement level in response tothe two choices; distributing the gamified survey to a plurality ofusers through the workforce management system, wherein the gamifiedsurvey is distributed through a user interface having selectableelements associated with the plurality of queries; detecting a pluralityof survey responses by the plurality of users to the gamified survey;comparing, for the plurality of users from the plurality of surveyresponses, a plurality of user selections from the two choices and theagreement level; and determining a plurality of scheduling rules basedon comparing the plurality of user selections, wherein each of theplurality of scheduling rules are associated with one of the pluralityof users.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19,wherein the scheduling operations further comprise: in response toreceiving an acceptance of the plurality of scheduling rules, performingelectronic scheduling for each of the plurality of users in theworkforce management system, wherein the electronic scheduling updates aschedule for the each of the plurality of users.